Serena Williams has been out with foot injury for months and in the midst of announcements of her comeback a piece of news broke out about a serious lung condition that required the tennis star to undergo an emergency treatment.

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, the one who took the top spot in the rankings from Serena herself, visited the American at her home in Los Angeles. Wozniacki’s report on Serena’s health is positive, saying that Serena looks good and is in good spirits. However, the threats are not over yet and there are things Serena still needs to check on.

Wozniacki was in LA to do a commercial and now she’s already in Indian Wells, where the $4,500,000 BNP Paribas Open is about to start. Wozniacki is No.1 seed at the tournament and as last year’s runner-up she has a lot of points to defend. If she loses in the second round and Kim Clijsters reaches the fourth round, Clijsters will be No.1 again. Another scenario that would change the top-ranked player is that Clijsters advances to the quarterfinals or better and Wozniacki does not get just as far. (source: Fairways and Forehands, photos: Getty Images)

Women's tennis fans seem to be divided into two groups: those that think Caroline Wozniacki is true No.1 and those that believe she's not justifying her status without a Grand Slam title. David Fearnhead, sports writer and the author of "Bailey of the Saints" which is due out in October 2011, is definitely on the Dane's side and he's eager to tell you why.

There is a lot of stuff and nonsense currently being spoken about who is the real number one in women’s tennis. I’ve grown a little wearisome at the constant snipping at Caroline Wozniacki by those claiming that her number one ranking should come with some sort of asterisk to indicate she’s not won a Grand Slam. Many claim the best player currently on the women’s tour is Kim Clijsters, but this somewhat defeats the purpose of the WTA Tour.

Clijsters may have been undefeated in Dubai and Doha, but that was only because she didn’t show up – and that is a long way from any sort of victory. Read more »

World No.3 Vera Zvonareva won her first title in over a year (the period in which she lost five finals!), after defeating top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open. They both played great tennis, but it was Zvonareva who always had a slight edge, which was increasingly frustrating Wozniacki, a bit of a favorite who had lost just 9 games en route to the championship match.

Even though the match could have easily gone either way, the first big moment approaching victory to Zvonareva's side was when Wozniacki had three successive chances to break the Russian and even the score to 4-4. The Dane wasted them all and Zvonareva capitalized on her 5-3 lead to soon take the first set.

In the second set there was a crucial fifth game, on Wozniacki's serve, at 2-2. There were eight deuces and well over 10 minutes of play, and Zvonareva came out as the winner of that one. More tense games followed and until the end the winner was not apparent, but Zvonareva maintained her high level of tennis and kept her nerve – even when she had to let go of an apparent match point, because she didn't have a challenge to challenge a wrong call from a line judge.

Final score: 6-4 6-4. As for the money finalists took home: Zvonareva's share is $111,000, while Wozniacki's is almost twice less, $60,000.

Wozniacki will remain No.1, but this defeat will surely stay in her head. On the other hand, congrats to Zvonareva for wonderful performance and result in Doha. It was really nice to see her jumping, all smiles.

I have to use this opportunity of congratulating people to do a rather awkward thing – congratulate myself. Women's Tennis Blog was visited by 35,326 people yesterday!

And last but not least, I'd like to give a special thanks to Johan Rivera, a professional photographer based in Qatar, who was sending me loads of fresh and awesome pics from the tournament!

France's Marion Bartoli was no match for in-form Caroline Wozniacki in the Qatar Ladies Open semifinals and the top-ranked Dane will now be looking for her second straight title, after her victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova last week in Dubai.

Bartoli may had defeated Wozniacki in their previous two meetings, once in Cincinnati in 2010 and once in Stuttgart in 2009, but her resistance today was very poor. The world No.18 won 11% of points on first serve, and it was only after Wozniacki raced to a 4-0 lead that Bartoli managed to win a game of her own. But that was pretty much it, until the third game of the second set, when Bartoli held her serve for the first time and won her second and her final game of the match. Therefore, the score is 6-1 6-1.

Wozniacki is now 4-2 against Bartoli. Her opponent in the final will be either No.2 seed Vera Zvonareva or No.5 seed Jelena Jankovic. (photo: Johan Rivera)

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki lost just two games in the Qatar Ladies Open quarterfinal against 15th-ranked Flavia Pennetta – the first two games, in particular, before winning 12 straight games. Wozniacki hit 35 winners to Pennetta’s 33, but the real difference came in unforced errors, where Wozniacki had three times less – 7 to Pennetta’s 21.

Even though the score is so dominantly on Wozniacki's side, the match was not as easy. Actually, there were two long games (about 13 minutes each), one featuring nine deuces, and the other one seven.

Marion Bartoli will be Wozniacki’s opponent in the semis. The Frenchwoman earlier defeated Peng Shuai 6-2 6-2. (photo: Johan Rivera)